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Friday, May 27, 2016

Mexican-American history textbook proposed for Texas schools called ‘racist’ by scholars

From a Dallas Morning News blog authored by Tom Steele on just how offensive the newly proposed book that is racist and disguising itself as Texas History. This is a key point in the debate over this Texas history book written by non-experts of Mexican American Studies:

The book is produced by Momentum Instruction, a company that appears
to be owned or operated by Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Texas State
Board of Education from 2007 to 2011. Dunbar, a right-wing Christian activist who questioned the
constitutionality of public schools in 2008, labeled the education
system “tyrannical” when she published her book, One Nation Under God, while serving on the board.

Sigh. The Texas SBOE never ceases to amaze.

Dunbar is an anti-public school zealot who had earlier described public education as a "tool of Satan." You can't make this stuff up!

According to Roque Planas in a Huffington Post article on the same topic, indicates that Dunbar now works at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University as an administrator. He correctly asks by what magic is she now a multiculturalist? And what makes authors Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle Texas historians may be similarly asked.

Texas boasts a large number of renowned Mexican American Texas historians like Emilio Zamora, Andres Tijerina, Frank de la Teja, Antonia Castañeda, Carlos Blanton, Miguel Levario, and others such that the Texas Education Agency need not accord Dunbar's textbook any regard when there's serious scholars that are already doing this work.

Heck, their bias is even evident on their book's front cover. As many beautiful images as there are of Mexica (or Aztec) danzantes, they could have done much better. The guy looks menacing, especially when considered in the context of this text that says that Mexican Americans—or more specifically, Chicanos—are people that “adopted a revolutionary narrative that
opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.” This statement alone shows that they can't even make it to first base with this text. It's a subliminal warning to Anglos like Donald Trump whose politics incite irrational fears of a browning America, of an alleged reconquista. If you happen to think the cover is beautiful, no problem—as it is inescapably gratuitous regardless.

Angela Valenzuela c/s

The Scoop Blog

Published: May 23, 2016 5:14 pm
A textbook proposed to help teach the cultural history of
Mexican-Americans in Texas public schools is under scrutiny by scholars,
some of whom decry the effort as racist and not a reflection of serious
academic study.
The textbook, titled Mexican American Heritage, describes
Mexican-Americans as people who “adopted a revolutionary narrative that
opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.”
The book also links Mexican-Americans to immigrants in the country
illegally, saying illegal immigration has “caused a number of economic
and security problems” in the U.S. that include “poverty, drugs, crime,
non-assimilation, and exploitation”
The State Board of Education voted to include textbooks on Mexican-American studies after activists last year demanded the subject be formally included in state curriculum. Mexican American Heritage is the first textbook on the subject included in a list of proposed instructional materials.
“Paradoxically, we pressed for the board to include texts on
Mexican-American studies, and we achieved it, but not in the way we were
expecting,” said Tony Diaz, host of the Nuestra Palabra (Our Word)
radio program in Houston and director of Intercultural Initiatives at
Lone Star College-North Harris. “Instead of a text that is respectful of
the Mexican-American history, we have a book poorly written, racist,
and prepared by non-experts.”

Eighth-graders
spread open their books during their history studies at John B. Hood
Middle School in Pleasant Grove. (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer)

Cynthia Dunbar

The Texas Education Agency says it followed standard procedure for
the call to submit instructional materials for Mexican-American
curriculums for the 2017-18 school year.
Texans have until September to submit comments on the proposed
instructional materials, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said. She
also said the proposed textbooks will undergo review by a committee that
includes teachers and administrators and that committee will make
recommendations to the board.
Ultimately, books adopted by the elected members of the Texas State
Board of Education in November become part of the recommended
instructional materials for statewide curriculums, but school districts
aren’t required to embrace them. Individual districts can use their
state money to buy whatever textbooks they wish.
The book “is not a text that we have recommended nor we will be
recommending,” said Douglas Torres-Edwards, coordinator of a
TEA-approved Mexican-American studies course that has been implemented
in some Houston Independent School District schools. “Frankly, that
author is not recognized as someone who is part of the Mexican-American
studies scholarship, and most individuals engaged in scholarship will
not recognize her as an author.”

The book is produced by Momentum Instruction, a company that appears
to be owned or operated by Cynthia Dunbar, a member of the Texas State
Board of Education from 2007 to 2011.
Dunbar, a right-wing Christian activist who questioned the
constitutionality of public schools in 2008, labeled the education
system “tyrannical” when she published her book, One Nation Under God, while serving on the board.

Neither Dunbar nor any of the book’s other authors could be reached
for comment. A phone message and email to Momentum Instruction were not
returned.

The Texas Board of Education’s members sanction textbooks for use
statewide in a process that has for years been marred by ideological
fights over lessons on subjects including evolution, climate change and the influence of biblical figures such as Moses on America’s Founding Fathers.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

2 comments:

You misquoted the book. It does not say "Mexican Americans" are people that “adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.” You might want to review the Washington Post article if you are confused.